Resident of Yarraville
Seddon was very different ten years ago
The demographic was just like us – young couples living in the Inner North but were priced out of the area. My wife, Suzy and I couldn’t afford to buy there, so we looked towards the West.
We had lived in the area for three to four years prior to starting the business, and I was working as a wine wholesaler. The Inner West was in my territory, so I was familiar with Seddon. I had a pretty good feel for the area and knew we had wanted a business in the local community. We were pretty confident it was worth waiting for an available site to come up.
When this shop came up, Suzy and I had been looking for about two years. We opened on Melbourne Cup Day in 2008, on 4 November 2008.
The local community seemed receptive to a more ‘left-of-centre’ style of dining and wining, so I felt there was a market for what we wanted to do. We have always leaned towards the more boutique side of beers, wines and spirits, as this is where my interests have always lied.
We’re lucky that people who visit the wine stores are in many cases, looking to be hand-sold to. They like someone to explain what’s on the shelf, be introduced to something new, and are up for our recommendations. It makes it so much more enjoyable for us. It’s our opportunity to build relationships with our customers. We don’t want just want to be a register operator.
In ten years, we have had phenomenal community support. I don’t think we nail a lot of things in our lives, but coming here was one of the biggest wins we’ve had and to start a business here, has been fantastic.
We are coming up to our ten year anniversary, and as a way to recognize that support, we have decided to attempt raising $10,000 to donate back to a local charity as a way to mark the ten years we have been around for. The charity is theAsylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC). We have made an early jump on it and the people have been fantastic with it. We may even exceed our target.
The bulk of the donation drive will begin on our anniversary and continue throughout the following 12 months. There will be many initiatives including raffles, and people could leave money at the counter. Closer to the anniversary, Four Pillars Ginwill produce an anniversary gin, and we are teaming up with one of our favourite vineyards for an anniversary wine, with the bulk of the profits going towards reaching our target.
It’s going to be fantastic, working out what the wine is going to be, the blend, the style and also the price point. Both companies are helping us out considerably, knowing a good part of the sale goes towards the ASRC. We’ve enjoyed a strong community support over the ten years, and it makes sense to return that favour.
I’ve been in the wine and hospitality industry for many years. I’ve worked in wholesale, as a distributor, sold wine to restaurants and worked in pubs and restaurants. Suzy was in the public health sector and always had her own career. When our kids came along, it was difficult for her to find a job that was flexible enough to work around the kids.
Over time, I realized Suzy has a knowledge of the business as I would bore her to tears about every little detail of what’s happening in the business. She’s well-versed in the operations. Although her background is in public health, she brings lots of skills to this business. For over eight years, I kept dropping hints to her and she’s resisted it. Finally, she relented and officially joined as business partner and co-owner 18 months ago.
Union Wine Store came about as I had always toyed with the idea of a second store. I wanted to ensure the motivation was right. I never wanted it to be about ego, but about the opportunity. We felt the area was underserviced for the type of business that we operate. As much as I enjoy what I do, I have been staring at these four walls in Seddon for nine years. It was getting a little like Groundhog Day. I don’t mind repetition, but I wanted to challenge myself a little bit.
Seddon is currently enjoying a period where quality businesses are bringing people into the suburb. It’s about giving people an opportunity to stay local.
A critical mass of local businesses such as Copper Pot Seddon, Sourdough Kitchen Seddon, Luxsmithand before they closed down, ajitoya, are allowing people to spend their money here, rather than taking their money into town. I will add, unlike Ash (co-owner of Copper Pot), you won’t see me on Masterchef!
One of the nicest things about being in the community for a long period of time is the relationships you build. You get to know everyone’s names, which is nice. We, as a family have enjoyed this, and it’s the network we have established over that time that makes our lives richer.
About 14 years ago, a few friends of ours had bought over here. We couldn’t afford to buy in the Inner North and had missed the boat several times. We had a look at the area when we visited our friends, and then rented in Kingsville when we first moved here. We bought a house in West Footscray six months later but now call Yarraville home.
It was pretty clear, even back then, that the Inner West was a vibrant community. Both Seddon and Yarraville have a village feel, although it’s changed somewhat over the years, and it’s slightly more mainstream now.”
Community Pride
I’ve noticed people are really proud to be living in the western suburbs as are we. They are invested in the area and you often hear ‘I would never live anywhere else.’ I guess it’s true for most areas when you have put down roots and built that network. However, there’s so much going on here.
People complain about the trucks, and it’s true, there’s a lot of traffic. However, go to Coburg and Richmond, and we don’t have that volume of traffic. Yes, we have heavy traffic, and there are many people doing great work trying to get that traffic off the local streets. It’s one of the unexpected advantages of living here.
I was born in Melbourne and had always worked in and around pubs, playing in a band in my youth. I had always needed something that was flexible, and pubs seemed to be an obvious kind of environment.
I met Suzy in a pub in North Fitzroy. She claims she didn’t pick me up, and I will stick to the story that she did. We dated for four years, and have been married for 21. Kids didn’t happen as we anticipated, so we went down the IVF route for many years, and it got to the point where it looked like it would just be the two of us. We knew we would still have a great life together.
We came around to the thought of adoption and ultimately came into contact with Anglicare in Yarraville. We had a fantastic experience and they ensured we could give the kids the best opportunities. More importantly, we knew we had reconciled that we were never going to have children naturally or through IVF, and were comfortable not being natural birth parents to our kids. All the necessary checks and interviews were done, and we had no issues with them.
We are very upfront about the adoption with our kids. There are discussions about it, and it’s about their identity and their story. It’s an ongoing conversation, and they know they have a birth father and mother. Gone are the days when people find out they are adopted when they are 22. When the conversation is open, you help the kids with their questions and emotions.
Wine is subjective. We don’t purchase any of the wines unless we have seen it, tasted it and can talk about it. It needs to be varietal, of a place and represents value for money. We look at everything before we bring it into our stores.
We devote every Thursday to wine-tasting. Both the store managers and distributors sit down with me, drinking and spitting, taking notes and go through as many as 50 to 60 wines in the day. It’s super competitive, and there is a lot of fantastic stuff out there. We are lucky to be on the circuit for a lot of good distributors and get to see some great stuff. The Australian wine industry is, for the lack of a better term, booming.
What’s coming into the country is amazing as well at every price level. Countries like Spain, Italy and France have always produced fantastic premium wines and are now a lot better at delivering entry to intermediate levels whereas they weren’t as competitive with what Australia produced previously. Now, there is fantastic stuff at the $15 to $25 price point. It’s a great time for consumers.
One of the funny things that occur every Thursday are the people who walk in and spot us tasting the wines. They always go ‘Gee, I want your job. You call that work?’ Yeah, it’s great and fantastic, and for each great wine that we see and take on, we see a whole bunch of lousy ones, it’s particularly awkward when you are faced with the winemaker and you are just not seeing it.
We have our hands full with the business at the moment, but it’s not to say we won’t have another store down the track. We have found our place, and have two terrific businesses and two wonderful kids. We are not constantly aspiring to have more. People get so caught up with reaching for things and almost forget about what they have. It’s always nice to stop and look at what we have – our friends and our community. We are enjoying what we’ve sown, and the Inner West is a great place to do that.
